Dean Phillips, the congressman who challenges Biden in the Democratic primaries

The last straw for a candidate is to organize an electoral event and not have a single voter appear.

That happened to Dean Phillips, recently in Manchester (New Hampshire).

Only members of his team and some journalists were there.

“Sometimes, if you organize it, they don't come,” he said with a resigned smile.

This Sunday, however, Phillips did a double in Hampton and Rochester and the modest capacity of the two venues was overwhelmed by dozens of followers.

Phillips, a Democratic congressman from Minnesota, is the only relevant Democratic Party politician who has dared to challenge the president of the United States, Joe Biden, in the primaries.

In Hampton he gathered nearly 200 people in a room at the Old Salt Restaurant as packed as the dining room where his successful Sunday

brunch

is served .

The day was clear, but with temperatures below zero.

Phillips arrived with his wife and began jokingly: “We're from Minnesota, so it's actually a little hot for us.”

“Are you ready for a change?

Yes, well, me too,” she explained, complaining about the obstacles his campaign has suffered.

“It is not that easy to compete against your party and your president in office and a man I respect.

But I have to tell you that the last 90 days you have made me feel very sheltered,” he continued.

“Welcome, not only Democrats and independents, but also Republicans,” he said, noting that Americans are not as divided as they would have you believe.

Phillips appears on the Democratic ballot along with a writer of self-help books, a comedian with a long beard who wears a rubber boot as a hat, and a president with a proper name but no position (President R. Boddie).

The one who is not there, due to a dispute between the Democratic Party over the calendar of the primaries, is Biden himself, although citizens can vote for him by writing his name by hand.

A millionaire heir to the family business and an entrepreneur himself, Phillips is in his third term in the House of Representatives for a district that includes part of the outskirts of the city of Minneapolis.

He was first elected in 2018, when Democrats took numerous seats from Republicans in Donald Trump's midterm congressional elections.

“We are an extraordinary country that has been divided by two parties, which I am gravely disappointed in,” he said at the Hampton restaurant.

The Democrat seemed at times willing to run on the centrist No Labels platform if he did not win the nomination, but then he clearly ruled out that possibility.

During most of his events he accepts questions from attendees.

“I think that if you run for president, you should face the voters, walk through the snow, see the press, answer questions, participate in debates and forums.

I mean, it's not rocket science, my friends.

And that's why I'm glad that all the candidates come here to do it.

Because democracy dies in the absence of its practice, and there is no state in this country that understands that better than you.

I have seen it.

I have lived it in the last 90 days.

“My God, you are good at that,” he told them in what was at the same time a criticism of his rival, Joe Biden, who has not campaigned in New Hampshire.

Congressman and Democratic candidate Dean Phillips, at a campaign event in Manchester (New Hampshire).Charles Krupa (AP)

To spite the president, Phillips has been running a statewide television ad comparing him to Bigfoot, arguing that both are hard to find.

“I'm kind of an expert on sneaky creatures,” a man dressed as a sasquatch says in the ad.

“So I challenged myself to find President Biden in New Hampshire during the primary.

“I thought I was good at hiding,” the ad says humorously.

In reality, the 55-year-old Democratic congressman defends Biden's policies, but believes that due to his age (he would be 82 years old when he begins his second term), he should not run for re-election.

He shares with Nikki Haley, 52, that we must turn the generational page.

And he declares that he would be happy to face her in the presidential election: “I think a Haley-Phillips confrontation this November would be better for this country,” he said on Sunday, although her chances are almost nil, according to polls. .

Phillips and Haley were both born on January 20, the day on which United States presidents take office, but at the moment nothing seems to indicate that they will spend their next birthday swearing in the Constitution at the Capitol.

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